5/31/2012: End to council's lifetime health benefit is on agenda

May 31, 2012

Written by

Michael Cass

The Tennessean

Two oldies but goodies have resurfaced on Tuesday’s Metro Council agenda.

While most of the public’s attention will be focused on a proposed property tax increase, legislation to eliminate heavily subsidized lifetime health care for council members and to change the timeline for Metro elections also will start moving through the system.

The health-care legislation, introduced by Councilman Carter Todd, would take away perhaps the biggest perk of part-time, low-paying council service: health insurance that members can carry all the way to the grave if they pay 25 percent of the cost, serve parts of two straight terms and have the insurance while in office. Under Todd’s plan, future council members would have to pay the full premium if they wanted to continue on the city’s plan after leaving office.

Todd’s bill says the benefit, in place since the early 1990s, costs the city about $300,000 a year. But he said there’s no telling how high the cost might go.

“Premiums are going through the roof,” said Todd, who first considered filing the legislation in 2010. “It’s an unknown liability out there. It’s a great perk. But it’s not fair to taxpayers.”

Todd, who represents parts of Green Hills, Oak Hill, Forest Hills and Bellevue, said dropping the program — though council members who are already participating would be grandfathered in — is “the least we can do” as the council considers a tax increase.

But Councilman Charlie Tygard said he probably wouldn’t be able to support the proposal.

“Selfishly, that was a major reason I came back to the council,” said Tygard, who served from 1989 to 1995 and returned in 2002. “One of the biggest attractions was being treated as a Metro employee for insurance purposes.”

However, Metro employees don’t get to take the benefit with them if they leave before they’re eligible for retirement. Todd, a corporate attorney who is not on the city insurance plan, said it would make more sense to raise council members’ pay if people believe they aren’t properly compensated for their service.

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“That would put a sum certain on the balance sheet,” he said.

Pushing elections back

Another piece of legislation, sponsored by Tygard, would allow voters to decide whether to amend the Metro Charter to move the next elections of the mayor, vice mayor and council back a year to August 2016. The move would require Mayor Karl Dean, Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors and the 40 council members to serve five-year terms, beginning with their election last year.

It also would put Metro’s main elections on track with state and federal primaries in every other even-numbered year.

Tygard, an at-large councilman, said he hopes to save the city $500,000 or more every four years by consolidating elections. He said he isn’t looking to extend his own time in office.

State Rep. Jim Gotto, a former councilman, introduced similar legislation in the General Assembly last year, but it failed.

A two-thirds majority vote of the council is required to put charter amendment proposals on the ballot. The council can put just two proposed amendments up for a public vote during a four-year term.

Other proposed charter amendments on Tuesday’s agenda would drop the requirement that the Metro Public Works director be a licensed engineer, a requirement that has been ignored in recent years; allow city employees to work part time as poll workers for the election commission; and let the council adopt an ordinance prohibiting Metro “from inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal history on the initial job application unless a criminal background check for the position is required by state or federal law, or in the interest of public safety.”